Five robots that are changing everything

Check out this video from the BBC on the five robots that are changing everything - including Pepper, a robot that CATCH have in their own Home Lab.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-40306617/five-robots-that-are-changing-everything

'Electronic skin' to monitor your health

Researchers in Japan have developed "electronic skin" with an organic circuit that can be worn on the human body.

3 things you can’t miss in 2017

This year at CATCH we've got lots of exciting events happening. Here are three dates for your diary please make a note.

10th-11th March 2017

Technology; Who Cares? Join us for Professor Luc de Witte’s Inaugural Lecture on Friday 10th March as part of the Sheffield Festival of Science & Engineering. Booking required – open soon.

Showcase of Future Healthcare
Visit our living room of the future displayed in the Sheffield Winter Garden on Saturday 11th March. Bring the whole family to discover how new technology can help you live well and age well! (No booking required).

#SFOSE

 

Spring 2017

We’re excited to be re-launching the Assistive and Healthcare Technologies Blog with a new name and fresh look later this year. Get in touch with Laura Murray to join our blog as a partner.

Visit the blog

11th – 15th Sept 2017

The Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe 2017 Congress will be held in Sheffield in September. Co-hosted with CATCH this international, week long event is one not to be missed! #AAATE2017

Paper Deadline: 10.02.2017
Visit the website

 Upcoming Events

• Sheffield University visit, Boston, USA. 11th – 13th January 2017
• CATCH January Networking Lunch. 17th January 2017
• CSUN AT Conference, San Diego. 27th Feb – 4th March 2017
• Technology: who cares?! 10th – 11th March 2017
• Mark Jayes presenting @ UNESCO World Conference in Bioethics, Medical Ethics and Health Law, Cyprus. 21st – 23rd March 2017

Are fitness trackers the future?

Interesting article from the BBC about the accuracy of our fitness trackers.

Click here to access the article.

Theresa May makes a stand for mental health

Jacob Andrews

Today, Theresa May will give a speech about how her government plans to overhaul mental health services in the UK. This will include increased funding for community mental health services, as well as training for schools and employers about mental health, and improved online services allowing people to check their symptoms online.

This is great news for many who have suffered with inadequate support for mental health conditions, for instance those who have waited weeks, months or years to get access to talking therapies.

It is welcome news too that there is renewed interest in online support. Modern technology offers us many possibilities in terms of educating ourselves on mental health and empowering us to monitor our own wellbeing. Getting it right can be difficult, however. In 2013, the NHS started an online library of mental health apps, which was later shut down after it was found some of the appswere not secure.

Mrs. May will announce the introduction of online symptom checks. It will be interesting to see which, if any, of the established tests for mental health conditions are used to produce the new tests. One-time tests for mental health conditions are known to provide biased results - they require test-takers to reflect on their wellbeing over a period of two weeks or more, though memories of pastfeelings are influenced by present experience.

In CATCH at the University of Sheffield, we are exploring how technology can be used ona daily basis to detect mental health problems early, and whether this can be applied for older adults. Mrs. May’s new interest in mental health shows there is appetite for such innovation, and we will be watching how matters progress with interest.

Written by Jacob Andrews, PhD student in CATCH, University of Sheffield